Dipped articles and method and apparatus for making the same



March 27, 1934. c MlLLER 1,952,935

DIPPED ARTICLES AND METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING THE SAME Filed June5. 1931 INVENTOR HEfl/ /A/V C. A771 15/1 W 69.. WW

ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 27, 1934 UNITED STATES P AT E T DIPPED ARTICLESAND METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING THE SAME Application June 5, 1931,Serial No. 542,213

11 Claims.

This invention relates to dipped articles and methods and apparatus formaking the same.

In the ordinary process of dip coating articles or forms by submergingthem in a rubber solution such as rubber cement or in a rubberdispersion such as latex, it is customary to suspend such articles orforms from some suitable support and then to lower them into the liquidand out again, in this way securing a coating which may be dried andvulcanized or otherwise treated.

In order to prevent the formation of an excessively thickened portion ofthat part of the article last to emerge from the coating liquid and fromwhich portion excess of the liquid drains 01f, it has been customary toinvert the article orform after draining in order to equalize thedistribution of the coating fluid. by allowing it to run back evenly onthe coated surface, In

I the case of forms with irregular portions, such 0 as glove forms withfinger shaping portions, they are dipped into the coating fluid with theirregular portions or finger shaping portions extending downward and areextracted from the fluid with the irregular portions or the finger 5shaping portions last to leave the surface of the I form is withdrawnfrom the liquid. This bridging or webbing breaks down almost at once butin a large percentage of the operations air is entrapped so thatblisters occur in the finished product, as between the fingers of thefinished glove. This difiiculty occurs when using either rubber cementor rubber latex in the manufacture of gloves by the form dipping method,and in some cases to the extent that as much as 70 to 80% of the gloveswill be imperfectly formed. The present invention relates to methods andapparatus for reducing the bridging and webbing effect and theaccompanying blistering produced by present methods of forming dippedarticles.

With the preferred embodiment in mind and without intention to limitbeyond what may be required by the prior art, the invention may bebriefly stated to consist in dipping the article or form into thecoating liquid and withdrawing it in such a manner that the irregularportions wherein bridging and webbing are apt to occur, will emerge fromthe surface of the liquid before other parts of the form. As anillustration a glove form may be dipped so that the fingers and thumbshaping portions emerge from the surface of the liquid before otherportions of the form.

In this way the bridging and webbing will be reduced to a minimum. Thearticle or form may be dipped in this manner by suspending from a rackor other suitable support and lowering into the coating fluid and outagain but in such a case the article should be suspended with theirregular portions extending in an upward direction as it is loweredinto the coatingliquid instead of in a downward direction, as is thepresent practice. In this way the finger shaping portions of a gloveform, for example, are made to enter the coating fluid last and emergefirst. In such a case the bridging or webbing of the fluid between theirregular portions or finger shaping portions will be reduced to aminimum and the resulting blisters on the sides of the irregularportions or fingers of the finished product reduced to a minimum.However, when the irregular portions of an article or form are the lastto enter the liquid, there is sometimes a tendency for air bubbles toform at the tips of those irregular portions, as at the tips of thefinger shaping portions of a glove form, resulting in small blisters atthese tips in the finished article. To remedy this blistering on thetips due to entrapped air, and at the same time to reduce to a minimumthe bridging orwebbing effect and its consequent blistering on thesidesof irregular portions, I have found that the best procedure is to dipthe article or form in the coating fluid with the irregularportionspenetrating the. surface of the fluid before other portions andwith the irregular portions emerg ing from the surface of the fluidbefore other portions.

The accompanying drawing illustrates a present preferred form ofapparatus for dip coating articles or forms in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the apparatus for dipping articles or formsin a coating fluid, and

Figure 2 is a vertical longitudinal View of the clipping apparatus.

Referring to the drawing which illustrates more or less diagrammaticallyan apparatus for dipping articles such as glove forms into a coatingfluid in the manner described above, the numeral 1 indicates a tank orchamber which may contain a coating fluid 2 such as rubber-cement or arubber dispersion, as natural or artificial latex. A rotating shaft oraxle 3, which may be operated by any desired means as by a hand lever 9,rests on carriers 4 which in turn are supported by and movable on tracks5 situated above the tank 1. A series of tanks 1 may be lined up alongthe tracks 5 and the carriers 4 may run along the tracks and thustransfer the shaft 3 from one tank to another as desired. Connected tothe shaft 3 at various points as may be desired, are radial arms 6 towhich are attached at an angle thereto one or more forms 7 to be dippedinto the coating fluid 2. The forms 7 may be of various constructions asforexample solid or hollow, metal or non-metal, porous or non-porous orperforated, with or without suction applied to the interior of the formdepending on the type of coating fluid and type of dipping used. Forexample, the form '7 may be a non-porous solid form and may dip into alatex composition in the tank 1 and the latex adhering to the form may,if desired, be subsequently coagulated by treatment with acid or othercoagulant in a manner well known in the art. The forms 7 may be attachedto the radial arms 6 in any desired manner as by fastening them to thearms or by clips or looks on the arms, and they may be set at anydesired angle to the arm. The forms are shown at right angles to the armso that the form will enter and emerge from the surface of the fluid atapproximately right angles to the surface. The angle at which the formenters and emerges from the surface of the fluid may also be variedsomewhat by making a bend in the arm 6 as at 8. Besides increasing theangle between the form and the surface of the fluid at the time the formenters and emerges therefrom, the bending of the arm 6, as at 8, alsomakes it possible to put more forms on a single arm than would bepossible if the arms were straight. The articles or forms need only beattached to the arm at a suflicient distance from the axis of the shaftso that it is possible by rotating the shaft and accompanying arm tocompletely submerge them.

In operation, the shaft 3 moved on the tracks 5 to a position above thetank 1 by means of carriers 4, is preferably made to rotate by handlever 9 or by machine completely in a clockwise direction as shown bythe arrow in Figure 2. The articles or forms '7, attached to the arms 6,will thus be made to dip into and emerge from the rubber latex orwhatever fluid may be in the tank at an angle to the surface of thefluid, so that the irregular portions of the articles or forms willenter and leave the surface of the fluid before other portions of thearticles or forms. The shaft 3 may, however, be made to rotate in acounter clockwise direction sufficiently to submerge the articles orforms '7 in the fluid in the tank and then rotated in a clockwisedirection, as shown by the arrow in Figure 2, to

- permit the articles or forms to emerge from the surface of the fluidwith the irregular portions before other portions. In this later case,the irregular portions of the article or form emerge from the surface ofthe coating fluid before other portions of the article or form but enterthe coating fluid after other portions of the article or form. Thislater method may be of advantage if the full length of the tank is notsufiicient to allow a full revolution of the radial arms.

In the case of the glove forms shown in the figures the form afterclipping in the coating fluid may be given other treatments as forexample a coagulating treatment as above described, a washing treatment,or a series of coating treatments along with other treatments as forexample a series of coating, coagulating and washing treatments ifdesired. The coating fluid may be compounded as desired and if a rubbercoating or article is to be produced, vulcanizing or acceleratingingredients may be added to the coating fluid. The form may be heatedand the coating on it dried, and vulcanized if desired, and after suchtreatment stripped from the form. The form may be heated internallyduring dipping, drying and vulcanizing operations. Vulcanization may becarried out by heating the rubber covered article or forms in hot watercontaining water-soluble accelerators prior to drying, if desired. Thearticle dipped need not necessarily be a form from which a completedarticle is subsequently to be stripped. The article dipped may in partor in whole itself form a part of a finished coated article. Whilerubber cement and rubber latex have been mentioned as coating fluids,the invention is in no way limited to the use of such but may be usedwith artificial dispersions of rubber or other materials and in fact isapplicable to coating operations in general wherever there is a tendencyof the fluid into which an article is dipped to bridge or web acrossirregular portions of such an article or form.

As the invention may be practiced in many different ways withoutdeparting from the spirit thereof, it will be understood that I do notintend to limit myself to the specific embodiment shown herein except asindicated in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention what I claim and desire to protect byLetters Patent is:

l. A method of dip coating a glove form to reduce the bridging andwebbing of the coating fluid between the finger shaping portionsthereof, comprisin the steps of dipping the form into a coating fluidwith the finger shaping portions first penetrating the surface of thefluid at approximately right angles thereto, and removing the form fromsaid fluid with the finger shaping portions first emerging from thesurface of the fluid at approximately right angles thereto.

2. A method of dip coating a glove form to reduce the bridging andwebbing of the coating fluid between the finger shaping portionsthereof, comprising the steps of dipping the form into a coating fluidwith the finger shaping portions penetrating the surface of the fluidbefore other portions of said form and removing the form from said fluidwith the finger shaping portions emerging from the surface of the fluidbefore other portions of said form.

3. A method of dip coating a glove form to reduce the bridging andwebbing of the coating fluid between the finger shaping portionsthereof, comprising the steps of dipping the form into a coating fluid,and removing the form from said fluid with the finger shaping portionsfirst emerging from the surface of the fluid at approximately rightangles thereto.

4. A method of dip coating a glove form to reduce the bridging andwebbing of the coating fluid between the finger shaping portionsthereof, comprising the steps of dipping the form into a coating fluidand removing the form from said fluid with the finger shaping portionsemerging from the surface of the fluid before other portions of saidform.

5. A method of dip coating a glove form to reduce the bridging andwebbing of the coating fluid between the finger shaping portions,comprising passing the form through and out of a coating fluid with thefinger shaping portions preceding the other portions of the form.

6. A method of dip coating an article with irregular portions to reducethe bridging and webbing of the coating fluid between the irregularportions, comprising the steps of dipping the article into a coatingfluid with the irregular portions penetrating the surface of the fluidbefore other portions of said article, and removing the article fromsaid fluid with the irregular portions emerging from the surface of thefluid before other portions of saidarticle.

7. A method of dip coating an article with irregular portions to reducethe bridging and webbing of the coating fluid between irregular por-Vtions, comprising the steps of dipping the article into a fluid with theirregular portions first penetrating the surface of the fluid, andremoving the article from said fluid with the irregular portions firstemerging from the surface of the fluid.

8. A method of dip coating an article with irregular portions to reducethe bridging and web- ;bing of the coating fluid between the irregularportions comprising the steps of dipping the article into a coatingfluid, and removing the article from said fluid with the irregularportions emerging from the surface of the fluid before other portions ofsaid article. i

9. A method of dip coating an article with irregular portions toreducethe bridging and webbing of the coating fluid between the irregularportions comprising the steps of dipping the article into a coatingfluid, and removing the article from said fluid with the irregularportions first emerging from the surface of the fluid. V

10. A method of dip coating an article with irregular portions to reducethe bridging and webbing of the coating fluid between the irregularportions, comprising passing the article through a coating fluid withthe irregular portions in ad- Vance of other portions of the form.

11. A method of dip coating an article with ir regular portions toreduce the bridging and webbing of the coating fluid between theirregular portions, comprising passing the article through and out of acoating fluid with the irregular portions in advance of other portionsof the form.

HERMAN C. MILLER.

